CFDA Issued the 2017 Food Safety Casual Inspection Plan and Requirement - Regulatory News - Food & Food Contact Materials

On 4 January, 2017, China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) issued the 2017 Food Safety Casual Inspection Plan and Requirement in order to guarantee food security and enhance enterprises’ sense of responsibility.

1. Varieties of Sampling objects

The Casual Inspection Plan covers 33 kind of food including common foods, special foods and food additives.

I. Common foods mainly involve grain processed products, edible oil and fats and their products, condiment, meat products, dairy products, drink, convenience food, biscuits, canned food, frozen drink, quick-frozen food, potato and puffed food, candy products, tea and related products, liquor, vegetable products, fruit products, fried food and nut products, egg products, cocoa and baked coffee products, sugar, aquatic products, starch and its products, pastry, bean products, bee products and restaurant food.

II. Special foods mainly involve health foods, infant foods, foods for special medical purpose (FSMP), and other special dietary foods such as complementary nutrition goods.

III. Food additives mainly involve thickener agents, mixed food additives, food flavors, preservatives, sweetening agents and acidity regulators.

2. Detailed information of main sampling food

Food products	Subclass	Test items
Liquid milk	Sterilized milk	Pb, As, Hg, Cr, fat, protein, non-fat milk solids, acidity, aflatoxin M1, commercial sterilization, melamine, zeranol, sorbic acid, hexadecadrol
	Pasteurized milk	Pb, As, Hg, Cr, fat, protein, non-fat milk solids, acidity, aflatoxin M1, total number of bacterial colony, coliform, staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, melamine, zeranol, sorbic acid, hexadecadrol
	Modified milk	Pb, As, Hg, Cr, fat, protein, aflatoxin M1, melamine, zeranol, sorbic acid, β-Carotene, sucralose, vitamin E, total number of bacterial colony, coliform, staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, commercial sterilization
	Fermented milk	Pb, As, Hg, Cr, fat, protein, non-fat milk solids, acidity, aflatoxin M1, coliform, staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, yeast, mould, actic acid bacteria count, melamine, saccharin sodium, sorbic acid, β-Carotene, sucralose
Milk powder		Pb, As, Cr, protein, fat, acidity of reconstituted milk, impurity, water, sorbic acid, nitrite, aflatoxin M1, total number of bacterial colony, coliform, staphylococcus aureus, salmonella, melamine, β-Carotene, sucralose
Solid drink		Pb, protein, total number of bacterial colony, coliform, mould, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, saccharin sodium, sodium cyclamate, Synthetic colorants(allura Red, tartrazine, Ponceau 4R, amaranthus red, sunset yellow, brilliant blue), Acesulfame, sucralose, the sum of proportion ( dosage of mixed preservatives accounted for their largest usage), salmonella, staphylococcus aureus
Chocolate and its products		As, Pb, sorbic acid, benzoic acid, saccharin sodium, residue of sulfur dioxide, salmonella, melamine

PS.

I. For the complete casual inspection plan, please kindly here here for the CN version.

II. The more specific test items will be stipulated in the documents of Implementation Rules on Food Casually Inspection (2017 version).

3. Work tasks of FDA department

FDA	Sampling batch	Sampling objects	Sampling frequency	Sampling place
National level	31,400	Key food enterprises	I. Each quarter for key food manufacturers. II. Each month for the infant formula milk powder manufacturers.	all over the nation, mainly including large-scale chain supermarkets, shopping malls and wholesale markets, large network platform, etc.
Provincial level	479,500	Food enterprises with production license and large-scale catering enterprises	I. Assigned to each month on average; II. The higher the risk, the higher the frequency	Wholesale markets, farmers’ markets, supermarket, mess, central kitchen, etc.
City level and country level	765,000	Edible agricultural products	I. At least 20 batches a month; II. At least 240 batches a year	I. City level: scaled wholesale markets of edible agricultural products II. Country level: farmers’ markets, shopping malls, supermarkets, etc.

CIRS Comment

The results of the inspection will be disclosed to the public. Therefore, enterprises who produce and distribute unqualified products not only will be punished, but also may easily lose the trust of their consumers.

In order to establish a good enterprise reputation, food manufacturers shall strictly control the whole process from the raw materials to the products and carry out self-inspection regularly to ensure the quality of their food products. For oversea enterprises, pre-inspection in certified laboratory before importing is an effective response measure to the plan. It could help to avoid unnecessary punishment by CIQ or CFDA. If the food doesn’t comply with relevant national standards in China after pre- inspection, probable problems shall be solved before formal importation.

Reference:

http://www.sfda.gov.cn/WS01/CL1605/168282.html

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